Robert Irwin: A Conditional Art A Book by Matthew Simms yalebooks.yale.edu Only a mind opened to the quality of thingsThe most incidental detailIn a state of reverberationSort of underway by thenUntitled (Dot Painting)+41 More Seeing Is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One SeesPhenomenal: California Light, Space, Surface
Chopped and disfigured The details of a building cannot be made alive when they are made from modular parts If the builder wants to build the room from modular four-foot panels, he must change the size of the rooms, and change their shape, to fit his panels. In such a building system, it is impossible for a person to create a plan which reflects the larger subtleties of site or plan. Each plan will always be chopped and disfigured to make it fit the building details. To make the building live, its patterns must be generated on the site, so that each one takes its own shape according to its context. Christopher Alexander, The Timeless Way of Building What's suitable for each unique condition modularity